Switching to LED Light Bulbs

[Tyler]

Have any of you made the switch to LED light bulbs in your house?

About 6 years ago we remodeled our house and put in flood lights in the ceiling of all of our rooms.  This requires a good amount of light bulbs to light up the house and we were using halogen 50 watt par20 bulbs.  Recently most of the bulbs have started to go out so I have been replacing them with TCP 9 Watt LED Par20 bulbs and they have been working great.

Most of the light switches in my house are dimmable, so I had to wait until LED technology progressed, but I'm pretty happy with the benefits I get.  The bulbs are around $23 to $25 per bulb compared to $5 per bulb, but they are said to last 10 times longer and use 1/5th of the energy.  At this rate, I shouldn't have to change one of these until I'm 60 years old, but that remains to be seen.  Even if they lasted twice as long at 1/5th the energy, I'd still be happy.

What I'm curious to see is how it affects the overall electricity bill.  We have an exchange student from Japan that lives with us and she stays up pretty late at night talking to her friends so I changed her room out first.  I found that they are brighter than the halogen bulbs I've been using, so I have started changing out the bedrooms now as I like the brighter lights.

Has anyone else made the switch or is making the switch to LED light bulbs?  If so, what's your experience so far?

[mrzed]

If I bought a bulb that lasted until I was 60, it would burn out the moment I turned on the switch! LOL.

No experience with LED bulbs, but did look at them in the store.

My night stand light is hooked up to a light dimmer which turns ON the light like a sunrise. That's my alarm clock. Thus is needs a dim-able light.  Lowes still had some standard lamps, so I bought 8. Don't think the LED ones would put out enough light, and they are pretty pricy.

The CFL's, while rated for a long time, don't seem to last as they are rated. But that, too might be based upon number of on-off cycles.

[Cave Dweller]

I have slowly been making the change in my house.  The main issue I have had so far is the color of the light the LED usually gives off.  My wife did every room in a specific color scheme, and the LED lights changed the way some on the paint and fabrics look.

The warm white is the closest color to the standard bulb.  The bright white looks too much like the blueish flourescent tube.

[bennett11]

I am slowly converting, starting initially with outside lighting and night lights.  will continue slowly - prices will come down in time.  I like the the white light they give. 

Now if someone would do something about smoke detectors - the bane of our existence in our house.  I am no longer able to change batteries and they always start beeping in middle of night.

bob

[TV guy]

At last, something I really know about. LEDs are wonderful. We've converted almost all of our stage lighting to LED; what used to take a 1000W tungsten bulb or a 575W halogen now takes 50W with LED AND with DMX control we can make the light ANY colour (which means we need far less fixtures. To date, we have not had one LED failure but if a single LED or even several failed in a fixture/array the effect would be minimal; it is rare to have an LED bulb or fixture with only a single LED; its always an array.

You will save money, energy and effort in the long term with LEDs. It is no exaggeration to say that if ALL the tungsten and halogen bulbs in use were replaced with LEDs we wouldn't need to build new hydro facilities for decades to come.

"Come on baby light my LED"

[TheSlyBear]

Yup, we're almost exclusively LED now. Even for the landscape lighting.

I make sure to get bulbs with a color temp of 2700K to avoid that bright ultra-strark white color.

[benlen]

I'd be curious to see a CFL vs LED discussion––I know a lot of computers (Apple computers/displays) use LEDs now, and I use CFLs throughout my apartment and for video lighting.

[Natedawg]

I've looked into LED bulbs now and then, but for now CFLs seems to be at a much more reasonable price. I'll make the switch eventually.

Like others have said, it's hit or miss with the whole "longer life" claims of CFLs. I've had some die pretty quick, while others have lasted years, with about the same amount of use. I'm under the assumption that the fixture itself may be a large part of that...

[Tyler]

I also like the warm white.  The first LED bulbs I bought were also too blueish so I put them in my bathroom where they don't make as much of a difference due to the vanity.

The warm white is the closest color to the standard bulb.  The bright white looks too much like the blueish flourescent tube.

[Laser Man]

CFL's are like any fluorescent bulb, meaning the life is very sensitive to the number of on/off cycles.  If you are going to turn the light back on within 15 minutes, you are better off leaving it on rather than turning it off and on.  CFL's also take time to reach their full intensity, so they are not very good in uses where you need immediate light.  They are also temperature sensitive, i.e., some won't start at low outdoor temperatures and those that do start will take longer to reach normal brightness.  Many CFL's are not dimmable and many contain a trace amount of mercury in the starter.  Lastly, no CFL to date has been able to achieve the color resolution / warmth of an incandesent bulb.

LEDs are completely different - there is no filament (like an incandesent) to heat up (and burn out) or gas to charge (like a CFL).  LEDs are very energy efficient and require little space (example: a flat panel TV with LED backlight is very thin and very bright)  They come on immediately and are instantly bright.  The main issue besides cost is color resolution / warmth which is better than CFLs and approaching incandesents. 

 

[Laser Man]

One last point: humans are accustomed to sunlight (full spectrum / full color reproduction).  Our earliest experience with artificial light was from fire which is light that is biased to the yellow / red end of the light spectrum.  Hence, we associate artificial light with "warm" light and find the cooler light from CFLs and some LEDs to be unpleasant and uncomfortable. 

[TheSlyBear]

I hate CFLs. Have had nothing but problems with them.

[Laser Man]

Here's an advantage that both CFLs and LEDs have over conventional bulbs: most lamps are rated for a maximum wattage due to the heat given off by an incandescent bulb (concern over fire hazards).  Since CFLs and LEDs give off so much less heat, you can use a brighter bulb in the lamp, e.g., a 100 watt-rated CFL / LED can be put into a lamp that has a max rating of 60 watts for a conventional incandescent bulb. 

[bennett11]

I notice my new refrigerator has LED lighting.  I really like it.